Please pass the word my friends, that I am looking for an addle-brained druid named Nealyn. I met her the other night as I was passing through Runnyeye. She sat and chatted with me for a while after I resurrected a fellow wayfarer of ours, and then said she had some business to take care of and teleported away. Later I heard from my Mistress Tunare. She informed me that Nealyn had been carrying a message for me that night and it was of utmost importance to our Temple. I can only imagine what that message may say and I cannot for the life of me figure out WHY she neglected to pass it on. I would appreciate any word of her whereabouts.
On a side note, I headed back to Runnyeye last night with my friend Drexxell in an attempt to acquire for him a very rare and beautiful necklace that had mystical powers that would enhance his already great intelligence. I popped into Runnyeye and who would you guess is standing at the entrance??? Well, no not that odd cleric of my last encounter, but Surliman. He had returned in the hopes of finding some stalwart companions to take revenge on sporemaster. Hhhhmmmm maybe his name was Moldmaster, anyway… We headed over and caught up with Drexxell. We started the short jaunt down to the spore filled room and along the way our normal hunting shield, Thunderhart, met us. This was already looking to be promising.
Into the spore room we crashed like a herd of untamed mammoths, and promptly got Thunderhart killed. There was much more activity than we had anticipated going on in there at that moment. Surliman stayed with us long enough to get Thunderhart recovered and then he made some remark about going hunting for something to eat. He had neglected to eat before he arrived in the goblin and slime infested depths of that nasty smelling dungeon and now he was hungry. Frankly, I cannot believe that he would even be the slightest bit hungry after being in that stench. Then again he IS a barbarian and I have seen some of the things that pass for food in his culture… well I guess I should just continue with my story and not dwell on barbarian culture since some of you may be eating as you read this.
We spent our time just cleaning house and waiting for Surliman to return. Sure enough, Surliman returned from his search for food and we continued the onslaught. I think the haze that was present in the citadel that finally got to Surliman, because he just disappeared for a bit. One minute he was there with the rest of us and then next minute, he was gone. We searched for him for a short while and ran into a Ranger (I cannot for the life of me remember what the lads name was sorry) who was wandering about within the citadel. He was hunting down there alone and since there is strength in numbers, we all banded together and continued the search for Surliman. We fought and rested numerous times, always sending out calls for Surliman. He was just gone. We had almost given up hope of his return and to continue to just blindly run about the Citadel looking for him was to invite disaster so we remained in the spore room hoping that when he returned he could find us.
(I am not sure if any of you have ever braved the citadel of Runnyeye, but the to describe the Citadel as an actual city is incorrect. It is really just a complex cave structure. Caves as we all know are for the most part dank, cold moldy places to begin with. Then add to this unhealthy atmosphere, a number of gibbering homicidal goblins, well it just isn’t very pretty. I think I will need to take a dozen long hot baths after this excursion in order to feel clean again.)
As I was saying, we were sitting there resting and waiting for Surliman when all of a sudden, this pile of ick (don’t ask me to describe it, the pile was just that… ICK) exploded into a multitude of sporlings. They started ranting something about being only partially formed and they needed host bodies to continue their growth. I screamed and ran over to Thunderhart for protection because they weren’t getting this little cleric’s body. Both Thunderhart and the Ranger proceeded to squash the sporelings like grapes. It was during this little battle that Surliman found his way back to us. I was beginning to feel safer as the minutes went by.
We had just began another round of spore killing when Kelno the Mage shouted out that he had arrived in the Citadel and would love to join us, but he couldn’t get past the goblins that were at the entrance way. He also added that he was unfamiliar with the area and was wondering if we could come and get him. (As a side note, it isn’t particularly sneaky or safe to enter the enemy’s lair and SHOUT out your location. So for you fledgling adventurers out there, take that warning to heart. You need to remain quiet and stealthy when in enemy territory.) Well we all ran up there to save him from his folly and managed to make it back to the spore room more or less in one piece. I don’t think I have ever felt less needed than I did that night. Between the two large warriors, one ranger, Drexxell’s familiar and then Kelno’s and Drexxell’s spell casting, I just sat there and waiting for one of them to start to bleed. It’s kind of harsh to actually wish for your compatriots to get hurt so you can actually feel like you are contributing something, but I must confess I was almost to that point.
I believe Thunderhart shared my sentiments. He said he had heard that the goblins had captured an evil eye or two and that he felt it was unfair for anything to be held against tit’s will, evil eye or not. He suggested that we head there and see what the situation was. So off we went and it wasn’t too long before ran into the goblins that were guarding those captive eyes. The goblins took a bit of work but it still was a very easy encounter all things considered. Next Thunderhart tried to free the prisoners, only to have them turn on him. He tried to explain that they were now free, but I think the months of isolation that they had been subjected to had pushed them over the edge to insanity. We had no choice but to end their misery. One of them had the poor mage Kelno targeted and made short work of him. The rest of us persevered and vanquished the eyes. We then rounded up Kelno’s body, resurrected him and decided to head out for the evening.
I will continue to look for that dizzy druid Nealyn. If anyone sees her, please pass on that I am looking for her.
Xandamir –Humble Servant of Tunare-